Our visit from Kathryn Apel

Our library was excited to welcome author and poet Kathryn Apel for her visit on Monday, May 22nd.

However, four keen students met Kathryn the day before at her Poetry workshop at The Little Bookroom in Carlton where they had fun with 30 other children playing with words and exercising their creativity.

 

I was very excited to meet Kathryn who I’ve known on Twitter for some time. To celebrate the release of Kathryn’s latest verse novel Too Many Friends, I even managed to make a Ferris Wheel cake!

Kathryn spoke to our Year 3-6 classes. Each session with Kathryn was different and we discovered how important Kathryn’s family and her life on the farm are in helping to shape her writing. 

We also learnt a lot about getting stuck in the mud on the farm and how hard it is to get out!

We enjoyed learning how Kathryn writes her verse novels and were very impressed with her shape poems, especially ‘Duck Dad!’ She has given us lots of ideas for our own writing.

At the end of each session, Kathryn encouraged us to turn off our televisions and devices and be creative. Kathryn showed us lots of ways her sons had been creative over the years and students were amazed that one of her boys had made a chain mail top! When Kathryn returned to our library on Tuesday before school she had a wonderful surprise when two students popped in to show they had heard her message and been creative with boxes that night!

One of our Prep classes was very lucky to listen to Kathryn read her book This is the Mud! before she had to leave. This book is special to our library because Kathryn thoughtfully sent it to us when our library was damaged by flooding and now she has been to our library to read it!

Thank you Kat for showing us how to paint pictures with words and reminding us that playing with words and being creative is FUN!

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11 thoughts on “Our visit from Kathryn Apel

  1. How very lucky the students to have such a treat. Well done Ms Yeomans for organising it.

  2. Looks like Kathryn’s visit was a huge success. What a clever Teacher Librarian to make a ferris wheel cake! Bet that tasted wonderful. I love the boys who went home and showed their creativity – that’s how inventions occur. Maybe one day they will invent a way to get out of mud more easily! Perhaps others will be inspired to write and share more poetry like Kathryn has done. Happy reading everyone 📚

  3. Thanks MS,

    It was a delight to have Kathryn visit our school and inspire our students.

    Miss Y 🙂

  4. Hi Louise,

    Kathryn’s visit was definitely a success!

    I wouldn’t be at all surprised if our creative twins invented a way to get out of the mud easily. We are starting a Creativity Corner in our library to share some of the creative things our students make and do and inspire each other. Last week the Year 6s tried some Erasure poetry at Kathryn’s suggestion…it was a great activity and some of the boys really enjoyed playing with words to create their own poem from a piece of Kathryn’s text from ‘Fencing with Fear’.

    Happy reading to you too…

    Miss Y 🙂

  5. To come here and revisit all the wonderful things – the cupcakes, the creations and wonderful conversations – not to mention that amazing bright author display! – and to see that you’re continuing to be inspired and creative in different ways… that makes my day sing. 🙂

    I’m sure you all know how fortunate you are, to have Miss Y opening a world of books in your library. She is amazing!

  6. Thank YOU Kat…for making our Monday sing and for planting lots of creative seeds for each of us to grow in our own unique way….

    Miss Y 🙂

  7. It was very interesting! Thanks Kat for your visit.

    From Luke m 5AC 😀 😀 😀

  8. Miss Y you’ve done it again. You keep the wonder and magic of reading and writing alive at St Martin’s by organising the BEST opportunities for the students.
    How fantastic to hear that Kathryn spoke about being creative.
    Well done with the Ferris Wheel cake. This shows creative skill and organisation.
    Kathryn would have been delighted seeing the gratefulness shown for the book that she donated when the school library was flooded.
    Mrs S

  9. Hi Mrs S,

    I think making the Ferris Wheel cake may have been closer to a miracle with my baking skills! It’s the KISS method….Keep It Simple!!

    Miss Y 🙂

  10. Hi Miss Y

    Wow!
    Hope you’re all good
    I am so lucky that you are my library teacher and you always organise an amazing treat every now and then .

    Love Natasha 3w

  11. Hi Natasha,

    It was wonderful to see you and the other enthusiastic students from St Martin’s at Kat’s Poetry workshop at the Little Bookroom! I was so impressed with each of your Tag Poems and that you all had fun being creative. It was such a treat to have Kat visit our library and now we know so much more about her, how she writes and the stories that helped her write ‘Bully on the Bus’.

    See you in the library this week…happy reading!

    Miss Y 🙂

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